Children’s Literature, A Snack for All Year and Fun in the Lunch Box

This post was sponsored by DOLE® as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. All opinions expressed in my post are my own.

In a couple weeks, my kids and I will attend our first summer camp fair of the season. Sometime shortly after that, they’ll put together their camp wish lists and I will sit down to figure out the puzzle of our summer vacation schedule.

Theatre camp, adventure camp, soccer camp. Different times and places. Vacation weeks. Budgets. And when exactly will school let out this year?

It’s a lot. And unless you’ve been the parent sitting there with a calendar, forms, brochures and a calculator, trying to fit it all together in a way that will allow for both a fun summer and work within your work schedule and budget … well, you probably can’t understand or relate. Lord knows I didn’t until I first had to do it.

At the same time, we’re immersed in the school year. Tests and grades, honor roll and school activities. There’s always so much happening. This year, I’ve packed the kids lunches nearly every day, which allows me to make sure they eat well but also means I am constantly on the hunt for good things for them to eat.

Are you familiar with DOLE Mixations? They’re smooth fruit sauces with chunks of fruit mixed in. These new fruit fusions come in four imaginative flavors: Apple-Strawberry Sauce with Dices of Apple, Pineapple-Mango Sauce with Pineapple Pieces, Peach-Apple Sauce with Pineapple Pieces and Apple-Raspberry Sauce with Dices of Apple. My kids have really liked digging into these.

These are the kind of snacks I love to pack for my kids. With the fruit suspended in sauce, I don’t have to worry about liquid splashing onto their desks or anything spilling into their lunch boxes. But that’s not all. DOLE Mixations have no high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors, and are also rich in Vitamin C. And, if your family avoids gluten for any reason, these are gluten-free. (The ingredients are also non-GMO*, so there’s that too.)

Plus, they’re fun — not just in the flavors but in the packaging too. The lids have areas perfect for customizing with pictures, messages or whatever words of wisdom you want to share with your kids. Personally, though, I love to write quotes from children’s literature in the bubbles. Song lyrics can be fun too.

To write on the top of your kids’ DOLE Mixations, grab a permanent marker — I use a fine tip one, but use what you prefer — and get designing and writing. You can even use more than one color for even more fun

A Few of My Favorite Quotes from Children’s Literature

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” – The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll